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6 Centenary of Military Aviation 21 sfc February 13, 2014 AIR RCEF 23 25 22 24 Over 100 years, RAAF has flown scores of different aircraft. These are just a selection of them. Find out what’s what on Page 8. Passion for the past John Martin I N BETWEEN his official duties at the Centenary of Military Aviation Air Show, the new RAAF historian, Martin James, hopes to get time to just enjoy the experience of being there. “It will be very special,” says Mr James, who estimates he has been to or worked at several dozen air shows here and overseas – each with their own special character. To walk down a memory lane that goes back 100 years is an historian’s dream and he says the Point Cook show will provide a fasci- nating overview of the Air Force’s evolving capability over the time. But more than that, Mr James has a technical interest in aircraft that goes back to when he started out in 1981 as an Airframe Fitter at No. 2 Squadron at RAAF Base Amberley. So expect to see the delight on his face as he inspects and really appreciates the work that has gone into all that gleaming metal. Mr James, who previously served as Air Force senior historical officer for 5½ years, became the RAAF historian in September. He took over from Dr Chris Clark. One of his driving philosophies is: “What we do today, becomes our history tomorrow.” In other words: what might seem mundane to us now might well fascinate our descendents. He is conscious that this air show, like any other contemporary event, needs to be recorded for posterity, too. He is keen to impress this same philosophy on the many units which are expected to lodge a unit history report with his office once a month. These should list their operation- al activities, issues, successes, social activities and major changes. These forms are then digitilised and put on the unit’s history file – but the original submission eventually ends up at the National Archives, where they go on the public record in 30 years’ time. “We’ve got 137 separate units reporting,” Mr James says. But he suspects not everyone is participating. “As units come and go, it’s important we keep up with which units should be submitting reports.” It will be somewhat of a homecoming for Mr James when he returns to Point Cook. He was stationed there twice when he was in the Air Force. The first time was with No. 1 Flying Training School from 198993 as an ATECH. Then from 2000 to 2002, as a flight lieutenant, he served as the deputy chief instructor at the Officers’ Training School. By that time he was already starting to become interested in how the history of air power and the RAAF related to the Air Force of today. Point Cook is ground zero as far as RAAF history goes, being the birthplace of military aviation, and there’s enough of the original air base and surrounding farm land to provide a sense of where it came from. “We lived in an on-base married quarter and I have many fond memories of family walks around the perimeter.”